In an interview published in full in the June issue of The Weekly, on newsstands today, Nicole admits the critical reaction friend Naomi Watts received for her portrayal of another ill-fated princess, Diana, gave her pause for thought before taking on Grace Kelly.

"Of course I get nervous," she says. "But I have played Virginia Woolf and come up against iconic literary people, too. Naomi makes her own choices and I make mine. We didn’t plan on making princess movies at the same time.

"Obviously playing Diana is closer to the bone because it’s still recent. However, with Grace, there’s an entire generation that knows she was an amazing woman and a princess but perhaps don’t really know much more and I hope this film will fill in some of those blanks."

Asked if, like Princess Grace, she would walk away from her film career for love, Nicole tells The Weekly nothing is more important than her family.

"If it were the choice between my family and Keith, and my career, I wouldn’t even bat an eyelid," she says. "The most important things to me are the love of our relationship and my children.

"At this stage of my life, and with time being so precious, the joy I get from us as a family outweighs any joy in any other area of my life, by far."

Nicole also uses the interview to give touching insights into daily life in the Kidman-Urban household, including details of the family’s recent stay in Australia and their habit of compiling home videos each birthday featuring their daughters, Sunday and Faith. She also speaks affectionately about her eldest children, Bella and Connor and her pride at the adults they have become.

"They are generous, kind and hardworking," says Nicole. "And these are traits that I love to see in my children."